Test Pages

Thursday, May 19, 2016

There was the road work that tore up North Roosevelt Boulevard for what seemed forever but was actually two very long years. Now there is Caroline Street, outstanding for it's wrecked surface if not for it's occasional flooding and there is no end in sight, supposedly in a few more months. Rusty and I started our walk on bucolic James Street just around the corner and you'd never know what a mess awaited us on Caroline Street:

The road work will be goof when it's done I'm sure. The Boulevard (North Roosevelt) is brilliant, with no more flooding and traffic lights that respond to traffic and allow a steady flow, except at the triangle where one finds oneself frequently sitting, idling waiting fr a green light. Caroline Street will be smooth, with proper sidewalks and landscaping. There's Rusty nervously inspecting a downed bicycle, poised to leap back at the least sign of danger:

Lots of stuff but no signs of energetic action:

Perhaps it was the lunch break?

Just as it was on the Boulevard, the construction here is hardest on business:

Flagler Station is looking for new tenants, but this location always seems to be turning over new occupants.

The street closure ("Local Traffic Only") seems as random and as indecipherable as the sidewalk closures are too. Lots of barrels and weedy yellow tape flapping in the breeze like Himalyan prayer flags and about as effective. It's every car pedestrian and cyclist for themselves on Caroline these days.

Toppino is the name of the family of immigrants who got the winning bid to help build the Overseas Railway and they never left after that. Google: "colorful key west toppino family" to get a full review of all sides of this prolific family. Their red and white trucks are on scene at most public works construction.

The day got a bit too hot even for my Carolina Dog. Rusty started ducking into shady doorways and bushes to avoid the heat.

Time to go home.

Time for the Fort Myers Beach ferry to disgorge clots of tourists who fan out from the ferry terminal like leafcutter ants, lots of maps, lots of excited chatter, lots of getting lost (unlike the ants who make their own freeways).

The car, bowl of water, air conditioning. The construction stayed behind and continues to grind on.

Key West Diary

An archive of more than 5700 photo essays about Keys living since June 2007. My thanks to all those who have made up the 2.9 million views and 24,000 comments received by this page over the years.
Please feel free to reproduce any original photo as long as you give Key West Diary the credit.

"Given previous influenza pandemics, and this not an influenza virus so we don't know for certain it will act like that, but if it did, by far the second wave was the worst one of each of the pandemics....A second wave (of COVID-19) in late summer or early fall that lasts three or four months could make everything we've experienced so far seem mild."